Gibt es bewusste Wahrnehmung beim apallischen Syndrom? * Does Conscious Awareness Exist in the Apallic Syndrome?

▼ years, the assumption of lacking awareness and consciousness in the so-called “apallic syndrome” or “vegetative state” has been challenged by clinical evaluations and results of neuroimaging. The use of standardised scales for the clinical examination of patients with severe – especially posttraumatic – brain injury detected hints for willful reactions after external stimuli in up to 40 %. Neuroimaging methods detected stimulus-correlated cortical brain activation, which reliably could be attributed to conscious awareness. For substantial and methodical reasons detected patterns of brain activation may be over-interpreted in terms of visible awareness. The descriptive term “unresponsive wakefulness syndrome” should replace the names “apallic syndrome” and “vegetative state”.